The Journey to HK Unicorn Status
Life Lessons from local unicorns at Startup Impact Summit 2019
“Expansion is always a fun topic, our was a big mistake.”
— Blake Larson, Managing Director of International, Lalamove
During WHub’s Startup Impact Summit on 25 January 2019, a core event of InvestHK’s StartmeupHK Festival, 365 days of startup entrepreneurship was condensed into one day.
As the conference aims to represent the local ecosystem, it was only natural that WHub showcased the best of Hong Kong’s hustling spirit, and Startup Impact Summit’s unicorn panel on the main stage did not disappoint.
Moderated by Karen Contet Farzam, WHub Co-Founder & Chief Hustler, AngelHub Co-Founder & CEO, it was our incredible honor to have Alex Kong, TNG FinTech group Founder & CEO, Blake Larson, Lalamove’s Managing Director of International and Jessica Lam, WeLab’s Head of Strategy, dive into a passionate but honest discussion of the battles and victories to face in order to achieve mythical beast status.
In this article, we will go over some of the main themes, the key lessons, the heartwarming/heartbreaking stories and important advice given by these leaders of the startup space.
Why Hong Kong?
“We saw in traditional banking space a way we can make the financial experience better and digital.”
— Jessica Lam, Head of Strategy, WeLab
There was a consensus within the panel that while Hong Kong has well-established systems in areas such as banking and logistics, it was lacking in modernization and digitization. Each unicorn provided a much-needed solution.
According to Blake, “Hong Kong already has a very mature logistics culture. The innovation that Lalamove has incorporated into this logistics scene is to go from analog to digital.”
Jessica and Alex both agreed that as an international financial center, Hong Kong’s banking system was mature but traditional. While WeLab aimed to streamline and digitize financial services— “we saw in traditional banking space a way we can make the financial experience better and digital”, TNG Wallet wanted to make banking more accessible to all. “We target to help the unbanked — the foreign workers. They really need cross-border support, we really changed their lives,” says Alex, “you need to find the niche market and go deep. Go solve their problems.”
Scaling & Expanding
“We all know that Hong Kong is very small, but that’s our advantage — we know we have to grow. “
— Karen Contet Farzam, Co-Founder, WHub & AngelHub
Hong Kong is mutually agreed to be a great place to grow a startup — Blake quaintly sums it up with “Hong Kong is a great breeding ground”. (Learn more about this at WHub’s Startup Ecosystem Whitepaper.)
In addition, with Hong Kong’s tight regulations, Alex describes starting up in Hong Kong as training in a “Shaolin temple” which he views positively. “When we tell Southeast Asian countries that we’re expanding to that we follow Hong Kong compliance, they put their trust in us.”
Moreover, Hong Kong is actively becoming more startup-friendly. According to Jessica, when WeLab first started off, “no one really knew FinTech and AI”, but with the government’s support and education, the developments of the two technologies are “flourishing”.
When expanding to other countries, choosing the right market and localizing are the key areas to take note of. Blake humorously shared his mishaps — “Expansion is always a fun topic, our was a big mistake. We went to Singapore, but why would you go to a market that’s smaller than your original one?”
Fundraising
“We knocked on more than 200 doors, and we get rejected every time.”
— Alex Kong, Founder & CEO, TNG Wallet
“Traumatizing” is how Jessica would describe fundraising. The unicorns all shared their battles in finding the right investors as well as maintaining their self-esteem during this arduous process. Although now TNG FinTech Groups is huge, acquiring competitors in the same space and providing a variety of services, they “knocked on more than 200 doors,” and got “rejected every time”. According to Blake, “I really had to convince myself that I’m not a failure. We were creating value every day but it’s so hard to get rejected so much.”
The panelists then gave advice on how to maintain the correct mentality. Alex provided a wonderfully motivating pep talk — “ If I can’t convince myself, how do I convince other? When we face challenges, when we face rejection, let’s focus on ourselves.” On the other hand, Jessica provided a rational explanation of the terrible odds. “How can you be smart about rejection? What you need to do is to recalibrate what you define as success, what the norm for rejection should be.”
Alex also gave advice on how much money to expect during fundraising. “When you’re a small startup, don’t go chasing all the well-known investors — you might not have the connections and luck to get to them. Focus on growing the business first, don’t be greedy, take a little bit.”
How to Raise A Unicorn
“When you show people that you can make an impact, people start to dream.”
- Blake Larson, Managing Director of International, Lalamove
Towards the end of the panel, Karen cleverly picked up the pace and asked for short, snappy advice from the panelists so the information can be easily imprinted into the audience.
When asked about developing that winning attitude, here’s what the panelists said:
Learn something new every day. Study the bad and the good. — Alex Kong
Try a lot of things when you’re young. — Blake Larson
Take risks. Challenge yourself to do something uncomfortable. — Jessica Lam
When asked what the company culture of a unicorn is, here are the replies:
Build the DNA for change. — Alex Kong
Lead by example. — Blake Larson
Trust. You need to empower others, but you need to earn their trust. — Jessica Chan
The Startup Ecosystem Builder
We hope you will continue to show your support for all our activities and to put your faith in us to keep the Hong Kong startup space connected and growing. #StartupPassion
Stay connected with WHub, let us lead you to Startup Stardom!
Sign up to WHub’s Newsletter: https://whub.io/s/newsletter/
Follow WHub on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whubhk/
Follow WHub on Twitter: https://twitter.com/whub_io
Follow WHub on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/w-hub/
